Banner by: Sani
Chapter Six
Chapter 7
Lawrence, Kansas
Dean’s Childhood Home
(18-Weeks)
Mary watched tears pool in her son’s eyes and frowned. She reached out and lead him into the house as she spoke worry in her voice.
“What are you doing here? Are you all right?”
Dean was pretty sure he was having some kind of heart attack or at least a stroke. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. His mother, who’s been dead for twenty-two years, was standing in front of him…touching his arm, the warmth of her hand on his shoulder.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, come sit down.”
She shook her head moving him toward the couch. Dean stood in front of it and stared at her.
“Jo just called and said you just took off all of a sudden. She sounded worried.”
“Jo? Right of course Jo…Let me ask you a question. When I was a kid, what did you always tell me when you put me to bed?”
Confusion crossed her face and she gave him an odd look.
“Dean, I don’t understand…”
“Just answer the question.”
She sighed.
“I told you angels were watching over you.”
Dean nearly choked on the emotion threatening to bubble over the surface as he pulled his mother against him wrapping her in a huge hug, speaking softly a note of awe in his voice.
“I don’t believe it.”
Dean felt the tension in her body as she rubbed his back lightly.
“Honey, you’re scaring me. Just tell me what’s going on.”
He pulled back so he could look her in the eye.
“You don’t think that wishes can really…”
He trailed off and her brows furrowed at her son’s odd behavior.
“What?”
He shook his head and let out a loud chuckle before pulling her into another hug.
“Forget it. Forget it. I’m just happy to see you, that’s all. You’re beautiful.”
“What?”
He finally let go of her and moved around the room trying to take in as much as he could. He glanced at the family photos littering the walls and he couldn’t help the smile that edged on his lips as he ignored her question.
“Hey, when I was young, was there ever a fire here?”
“No, never.”
He pursed his lips before shrugging.
“I thought there was. I guess I was wrong.”
Dean’s eyes caught a picture of the entire family before moving on to prom pictures, Sam’s graduation, a few scattered of him and Jo one of Elizabeth that looked like it was taken at the hospital, before his eyes settled on a photo of his father in a softball uniform.
He lifted the photo from the mantle and swallowed hard.
“Dad’s on a softball team.”
He chuckled and turned to his mother who gave him a strange look. His laughter subsided and he cleared his throat.
“Dad’s softball team…that’s funny to me.”
She gave Dean a wistful smile.
“He loved that stupid team.”
At the tone in his mother’s voice, a frown crossed his face.
“Dad’s dead?”
She gave him anther odd look and he continued.
“And the thing that killed him was a...”
“A stroke. He died in his sleep, you know that.”
A stroke of course, not the yellow eyed son of a bitch. He snorted lightly, smirk on his face.
“That’s great.”
Mary’s tone was sharp as she spoke.
“Excuse me?”
“I just mean…it’s great that he went peacefully. It sure beats the alternative.”
He watched as a look of sadness crossed her face as she tilted her head gently to the side.
“You’ve been drinking.”
He shook his head. Why do people keep saying that? What is he some kind of recovering alcoholic in this life? Jesus.
“No. I haven’t, Mom.”
“I’m sure Elizabeth’s already up. I’m just gonna call Jo, and have her come pick you up, okay?”
He shook his head and closed the distance between them.
“Wait, no, no. Don’t do that. I wanna stay here.”
“Why? Dean are you and Jo okay? Because I know things have been rough lately. Children are difficult especially when they aren’t planned, but…”
“Mom no…things are fine. Jo is great I just…I miss the place. It’s okay, you go to bed. Okay?”
Dean held up his hands and moved over to the couch sitting down slowly, giving her a small smile. She was looking at him with worry etched into her features and he swallowed hard. He’d almost forgotten what that expression looked like.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“I think so.”
“Okay.”
Dean saw her lean down and when she brushed a kiss against his forehead, he leaned into her touch. God it hadn’t hit him until this minute how much he’d truly missed having a mother.
“Get some rest. I love you.”
He wanted to say the words, but they were stuck in his throat, the way they always were. So he smiled and nodded.
“Me, too.”
When she disappeared up the steps he grabbed the blanket that was hanging over the couch and laid down with it. Dean never thought he’d be able to see his mother again, but a part of him new it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. His mother was dead.
He needed to find a way out of this bizarre reality and he would…first thing in the morning.
After attempting to get in touch with Sam again when he woke up in the morning Dean had gone to the local college to try and get some answers about the Djinn. He hadn’t learned much, except that they obviously had the power to alter reality. He just didn’t understand why they’d do it. What was the angle?
He walked toward the impala, unlocked the trunk and opened it. Instead of weapons the trunk was littered with food wrappers, baby toys, and a mixture of porn and baby magazines. He shook his head and patted the car.
“Well, who would’ve thought, baby? We’re civilians.”
Dean glanced up and out of nowhere a young girl in a white dress appeared several feet in front of him. She stared in his direction. He moved away from the car and started to walk toward her when a car nearly hit him.
The driver swore before taking off and when Dean looked back to the other side of the road the girl was gone. He frowned. That was weird. He shook his head and walked back toward the car, but the uneasy feeling in his stomach wouldn’t go away.
Twenty minutes later Dean was sitting at his mom’s kitchen table, smile on his face as he took a huge bite out of a sandwich she’d made him. He spoke with his mouth full as he looked up at her.
“This is the bwest sandwich ewer!”
She chuckled lightly.
“Thank you!”
He swallowed and wiped his mouth against his sleeve before taking another bite.
“I tried getting a hold of Sam earlier. Where’s he?”
“He’ll be here soon.” He nodded.
“Good. I’m dying to see him.”
He watched as she sat down across from him at the table and patted his arm lightly, hesitant smile on her face as she spoke.
“Sweetie…don’t get me wrong. I am thrilled you are hanging out here all of a sudden. But shouldn’t you be with Jo and Elizabeth? Or at work?”
He stopped eating for a minute and raised an eyebrow.
“Work?”
“At the garage.”
He was being careless again. Of course he worked. How else would he live in a house and take care of his family.
“Right. The garage. That’s where I work. I, uh…I’ve got the day off.”
He glanced out the window and scrunched his nose slightly before pointing toward the front lawn.
“That lawn looks like it could use some mowing.”
A startled look crossed Mary’s face as she gave her son a wide-eyed look.
“You wanna mow the lawn?”
Dean grinned.
“Are you kidding me? I’d love to mow the lawn.”
She sat back in her chair confusion settling in on her face yet again as she motioned to the door.
“Knock yourself out. You’d think you’d never mowed a lawn in your life.”
He wiped his hands off and smiled before heading to the garage to find the lawn mower. Ten minutes later he was outside the front of the house, sun beating down on him as he mowed the lawn and he couldn’t have been happier about it.
He saw one of their neighbors taking out the trash and he waved cheerfully at him. The guy gave him an odd look and a small wave back. Dean couldn’t get over the fact that he was doing something so trivial. He was mowing a freakin lawn. Spending a quiet afternoon in the sun at his mother’s house.
After finishing the lawn he grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat on the front porch just taking everything in. He could get used to this. Mowing a lawn, having neighbors…a family. It sounded ridiculous, but the domestic home life he’d always feared wasn’t as bad as he thought it’d be.
He had just brought his beer to his lips when a car pulled up alongside the curb, Dean’s eyes going wide as he saw the people inside the car.
“I don’t believe it.”
Dean stood up as Sam parked and got out of the car moving around to open Jessica’s door for her. His brother looked like some college frat boy threw up on him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He rushed over to them and pulled Jessica into a gigantic hug.
She ‘oomphed’ and patted him lightly, though her body was filled with tension.
“Jessica.”
“Good to see you, too, Dean. Can’t breathe.”
He let go and pulled back giving her a sheepish smile before turning to Sam and was surprised by how relieved he was to see his brother even after everything.
“Sammy!”
He slapped him on the back and grinned, but he could see his brother was uncomfortable and he wondered what that was all about.
“Hey.”
“Look at you. You’re with Jessica, I don’t believe it.”
Sam gave him an odd look and a tight smile.
“Yeah.”
“Where’d you guys come from?”
They traded a look with each other and Sam sighed at the strange questions
“We just flew in from California.”
“California! Stanford, huh? Law school, I bet.”
Sam shook his head and gestured to the beer in Dean’s hand.
“I see you started off Mom’s birthday with a bang, as usual.”
“Wait, Mom’s birthday? That’s today?”
“Yeah, Dean. That’s today. That’s why we’re here. Don’t tell me you forgot.”
He shook his head quickly at the disappointment in Sam’s voice.
“Nah man of course I didn’t forget sorry. Of course that’s why you’re here. You know what, I should really get back home and check on Jo…and Elizabeth. Can you tell Mom I took off and I’ll see her later?”
Sam nodded.
“Sure. Dinner’s at 7 so make sure you guys meet us here okay?”
“Sure thing Sammy.”
Dean handed his beer to Sam before smiling at Jessica and moving toward his car. He got in, started it and headed back to what was apparently his house. Something wasn’t right. Things felt weird and as much as he wanted to ignore them he couldn’t.
This wasn’t his world even if a part of him wished it was. Or maybe this was real and his other life was fake? Dean wasn’t sure about anything anymore. All he did know was that something was off and he was going to figure out what it was.
Joliet, Illinois
(18-Weeks)
Sam sighed as he walked back toward the motel room. He’d spent the whole day going over the places he’d given Dean to look through. There were still about five places left, but it was dark and he needed to check in and see of Bobby had made it there yet.
He pushed open the door and froze in his tracks. Jo’s head shot up at the sound of the door and when Sam’s startled face came into view she gave him a small smile.
“Hey Sam.”
He moved into the room, frown on his face as he shut the door.
“Hey…where’s Bobby?”
“He ran to get some food. Did you find anything?”
Sam opened his mouth and then closed it while shifting from foot to foot.
“What are you doing here?”
She sighed and pushed herself up from the bed.
“What do you think I’m doing here? Dean’s in trouble. I’m here to help.”
Sam shook his head.
“Dean would kill me if he knew you were here and we’re already not on the best of terms.”
She crossed her arms over her chest.
“First off I’m a grown woman. I make my own choices so when we get Dean back if he has a problem that I came to help he can take it up with me and secondly I don’t appreciate the attitude. I’m just as worried as you. Maybe if you stopped biting my head off we could work together and figure this out that much quicker.”
Sam sighed. She was right. It was just unnerving him a little to be in the same room alone with her after everything that happened. He took off his jacket and tossed it on the other bed before pulling out the print outs from his pocket.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. This is a list of the possible places Dean could be. I was able to hit most of them today but there are still five places left, but between the three of us we should be able to get through them in no time.”
Jo nodded, arms dropping to her side.
“Sounds good. I mean we’ll know when we hit the right place because the Impala will be there.”
“Right.”
Sam nodded and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked exhausted. She held one hand against her back as the other ran over her face quickly. He knew this couldn’t be easy for her, hell it wasn’t easy for him either.
Sure he and Dean had agreed on a truce so they could work the job, but things weren’t nearly as okay as they should be between them and he’d never forgive himself if something happened to his brother before he could apologize.
“I’m sorry about this Jo…I should have never let him go out there alone.”
She shrugged.
“True you shouldn’t have, but if I know Dean he didn’t exactly give you a chance to argue with him. He’s always running off on his own half cocked. He’s gotta stop doing that. He needs to realize there’s more at stake now…”
She trailed off and rubbed her stomach lightly. Sam swallowed hard and sat on the edge of the bed.
“I’m sure he knows that. Listen Jo…I just want to apologize again for everything…”
“Sam stop. We’ve all been apologizing over and over again lately when really what we need to do is accept that the things that happened were out of our control and move forward. You and Dean will work things out, but first we need to get him back.”
Sam looked up at Jo and if he didn’t know before why Dean had fallen for her he knew now. She was one of the strongest people he’d ever known. She was standing there, five months pregnant, not sure if she’d ever see the man she loved again, and she was consoling him.
He smiled, stood, and moved toward her placing a gentle kiss against her forehead before walking to the table and sitting down in front of the scattered papers. A look of confusion passed over her face as he sifted through the papers before speaking.
“Okay, let’s go through the papers and see if we can narrow down the last five locations that way when Bobby get’s back we can go get Dean.”
He glanced over his shoulder and she grinned.
“Sounds like a good plan.”
Bobby parked his car and grunted as he pushed the door open, food in hand. As he made his way towards the motel room he caught a glimpse through the window of Jo and Sam leaning over the table as their mouths moved quickly.
He smiled. Who knew maybe Dean getting himself into trouble had been just the thing they all needed to bring everyone back together...
Chapter Nine
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